Prof. Bruno Pierri History of Italian Foreign Policy Italian Military Policy: A Historiographical Analysis, 1860- 1960 February 3th, 2016 Post-Unitarian Italy ► Special relationship of King with Army ► Myth of Garibaldi ► By 1870 middle-class element predominant in Army ranking ► Military unpopular ► First task was occupation of new territories to defend Liberal system ► Military performances: humiliating defeat at Lissa and Custoza ► Victory in social war against Bourbonists, clericals, bandits, peasants ► Piedmont introduced conscription in 1854 and then all over Italy ► Army better at preserving law and order than defending nation, or fighting aggressively for its cause: huge military expenditure had largely domestic purposes III Independence War ►According to Prussian war plans, Italy was supposed to challenge Austria on Southern front ►Meanwhile, in light of naval superiority, Italy could threaten Dalmatian coast War developments ► 16.06.1866 breakout of hostilities between Prussia and Austria ► Italy severely defeated at Custoza ► Custoza marked a halt to Italian operations, with decision to get organised against counter- attack ► Following several important Prussian victories (i.e. Sadowa July 3), Austrians gave priority to fight against Prussia ► Battle of Lissa July 20 ► First great naval battle with the use of steam battleships and last one with ramming maneuvres Giolitti ►Though social unrest could provoke suspension of civil rights, with Army behaving like force of occupation, Giolitti tried to hold the balance between employers and social protesters ►Army less openly needed to guarantee survival of State Catholics ►Political Catholicism shared some values with military: conservatism ►Catholic chaplains in war urged forward what they hoped were Catholic soldiers of the army ►Some parts of clergy became fervent patriotic after Caporetto The Navy ►Initially ignored ►Navy League established in 1897 ►Except in some coastal cities (Arsenal in Taranto 1889), navalism had little popular appeal – aftermath of fiasco at Lissa ►No pivotal role played by the Navy in WW1 First World War ► Massive war effort ► 5.7 million men involved ► Around 600,000 dead ► Some 500,000 wounded or mutilated ► Govt spent more than double than total military expenditure 1861-1913 ► Peasant soldiers gave highest contribute (casualty rate 39.8 % ► Law pay and brutal discipline (decimation) ► State fighting merely for dynastic advantages (sacro egoismo) ► Nov 1918 – more Italians than previously found identity in nation ► After Caporetto, Italy began to fight something like modern war, with propaganda determined to forge mass involvement in national idealism Fascism ►More militant view of the world ►Paramilitary youth organisations as example of totalitarian achievement ►Education system to serve neither middle class, nor proletarian truth, but rather national truth based on culture of people inspired by eternal values of Italian race and civilization ►Textbooks full of military culture Pietro Badoglio ► Chief of General Staff 1919-21, despite claims of his military incompetence leading to some extent to Caporetto disaster ► After March on Rome, his future seemed doubtful, because of his ideology, his military record, and because Fascists ideologues wanted to bring revolution to military hierarchies ► Outcome was continuity and tradition: Badoglio Chief of General Staff 1925, with a fervent fascist as his deputy Air Force ► Example of strength and weakness of Fascist military policy ► A pilot’s life seemed ideal to new Fascist man: modern technology, speed and daring – still a knightly crusader for the nation ► Air Ministry set up 1925 ► Gap between theory and practice ► Air Force not ready for blitzkrieg ► In 1939, Italy possessed 840 war planes ► Low aircraft production – 1942 US produced in a week more war planes than Italy did in a year Fascist War and social classes ► Italian society still nourished pre-1922 beliefs ► Middle class sought to save its sons from military service in war ► Proletariat rediscovered sense of self in 1943 strikes ► Intellectuals began to doubt Mussolini’s charisma ► Peasantry, still the most likely to fight and die in war, dreamt of family, village and America ► Rome’s population sought hope and confort from Pope after 1943 bombings Early Republic ► Italian military relationship with wider world ended in 1945, though Italy was granted membership of NATO ► New Army established and sent to Trieste in 1953 to negotiate fate of that city ► Italian soldiers only occasionally attracted attention of politicians ► Military had lost pretension to strut on wider stage .